The interplay between higher-order awareness diffusion and disease spreading with resource allocation

The coupling of disease spreading and awareness diffusion has an important impact on the dynamics of disease transmission. The rational allocation and appropriate use of medical resources are crucial for disease epidemic control. Based on the medical resource allocation method, we propose a double-layer network coupling model of disease spreading and awareness diffusion, where the awareness diffusion layer adopts a simplicial complex structure and the disease spreading layer is modeled as a complex network. We consider that medical resources are divided into three parts by adjustable parameters α1 and α2, which are used to enhance awareness diffusion, improve the level of self-protection, and treat diseases, respectively. First, we obtain the epidemic threshold of disease through the microscopic Markov chain approach. Second, we verify the consistency between the actual and theoretical results through numerical simulation for the epidemic threshold and the steady-state infection density. Moreover, we find that the higher the number of 2-simplex in the awareness diffusion layer, the higher the epidemic threshold, and the average degree of the disease-spreading network is negatively correlated with the epidemic threshold. Interestingly, we find that there are regions of optimal resource allocation at different infection rates. Finally, we find that the optimal resource allocation region tends to shrink as the infection rate increases.